I recently read You Are Your Child’s First Teacher by Rahima Baldwin Dancy. The subtitle is “What Parents Can Do With and For Their Children from Birth to Age Six “. I was interested in the book because it discusses the Waldorf philosophy of education and outlines ideas that parents can implement at home.
As I’ve mentioned before, I attended a Waldorf kindergarten for two years as a 4 and 5 year old. I eventually went on to attend public school, where I did very well and was perfectly happy. I am not considering Waldorf education for my own children. For one thing, the local Waldorf school is more than 30 minutes away by car. And for another I’m not really all that concerned about public school. If problems arise when my children are school-aged I may rethink my position, but for now we plan to enroll our little ones in our neighbourhood school when they’re kindergarten age.
But. But. The thing I like about the Waldorf philosophy is that they focus on the ‘whole child’. They do a lot more arts and crafts work, including knitting and sculpting. They learn to play instruments at a young age. They try to integrate the natural world and natural toys into the classroom and their learning. I like the idea of focusing on more than academics, of helping very young children to learn and develop without so much pressure to achieve. Of helping kids learn a variety of skills beyond basic literacy and numeracy.
This is why I read the book. I was looking for ideas of things that I could try at home as a complement to what my kids do elsewhere. Even parents who send their children to school are still teaching them. We’re all teaching our children, when we mean to and when we don’t. But we don’t all come readily equipped with ideas for fun and enriching activities.
The book provided a lot of background on Rudolf Steiner and the movement he founded, called Anthroposophy. As a child attending a Waldorf school Steiner wasn’t mentioned at all. In fairness I understand that is probably beyond a 4-year-old’s understanding. But it was interesting to hear Steiner’s ideas invoked as justification for so much of what I remember. The use of only red, blue, and yellow crayons, or the peach colour of the walls. They all have anthroposophic roots.
Although I don’t ascribe to Steiner’s teachings I did find the book useful. I particularly appreciated the integration of ritual into daily life. By singing a certain song or performing a certain action I have found that Hannah will more easily move from one activity to the next. For instance, every night we light a ‘story candle’ that she gets to blow out when the books are finished. These are small things to do, but they can make a big difference.
As for me, I will continue to read more than one story at a sitting. I know that Steiner says you should only read one at a time in order for the child to absorb it more fully, but I’m willing to take the risk. And I will allow Hannah to have crayons of various shapes and colours. But I will also keep up our nature table and look for other ways to integrate ritual into our days and seasons. I am perfectly happy to take the parts I like, and leave the rest. 
Have you read any good books about integrating learning in fun and creative ways? Or maybe just something chock full of good craft ideas? I’d love to hear your recommendations.
I stumbled upon your blog from PhD in Parenting site. I also read a lot on parenting topics. One of my recent favorite is Einstein Never Used Flashcards. I featured the content from it in several blogs. It has a lot of ideas on how to teach playfully (not so much on crafts though).
I am of two minds on Waldorf. I might be prejudiced, because parents with more “structure-oriented” kids said that their children struggled in Waldorf “self-directed” settings. My daughter is not very self-directed, so we selected a play-based preschool for her that has structure while focusing mostly on play and crafts. Perhaps I should visit a Waldorf school that is about 20 min from us, just to see how it looks like.
I’ve heard of this book and have thought of picking it up. There are certainly things I appreciate about the Waldorf method although I don’t agree with a fairly big chunk of it. However I love to try new books and stretch my ideas further, even if it only confirms my own path, kwim?
My all time favorite book learning is John Holt’s “Learning All The Time”. It was such a huge eye-opener and really inspired me into unschooling. Even if you’re not an unschooling advocate it is still *such* a worthwhile read.
~Tara
PS Where did you find your tiny “Share this:” Mine are too big and funky for my liking. :/ Yours are perfect and exactly what I’m looking for!
I think I picked up that book at a used booksale for pennies and never read it! Now I need to dig it out.
We have Q-ster at a play-based preschool because he’s learning letter, numbers, and such just fine at home, but we really wanted to give him chances to interact with other kids more – learn to share, take turns, etc.
We got A LOT of use out of “Preschooler’s Busy Book: 365 Creaative Games & Activitiesto Occupy 2-6 Yr Olds”
by Trish Kuffner
It’s a small sized book with lots of fun simple crafts… Amazon lets you look inside it